


The Man In The Void

by Kunabee



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Spring Madness Gift, i don't know how to tag things, i took way too long writing this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24261793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kunabee/pseuds/Kunabee
Summary: On the day the monsters are freed from Mt. Ebott, a small team of scientists finally succeed at utilizing teleportation. But their practice test has a note on it, and suddenly......suddenly, you're being constantly watched.
Relationships: Sans & Reader, W. D. Gaster/Reader
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47
Collections: Let's Create Spring Madness 2020





	1. Success

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThatWeirdOne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWeirdOne/gifts).



> i really hope you like this @ThatWeirdOne! it still feels terrible lol.
> 
> i have no self-control and this is way past the due date and in the amnesty period but i DID IT. apologies for the lack of proofreading.
> 
> platonic Sans+Reader friendship, romantic Gaster+Reader. we need more fics with Gaster and Papyrus who love the reader. -sage nod-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an entity in the void and it is watching you.

You were a glorified intern with a scientist’s paycheck, and you could not be happier.

Out of all your cohorts, you were the youngest by a solid fifteen years; the next oldest had almost a ten-year gap between his age and the rest of your coworkers. For Dr. Callum Patrini, it was his life’s work, his ambition, to make teleportation work.

You were Uncle Callum’s niece, which was probably at least ten percent of why you got this job. The other ninety percent was owed to your various skills and abilities, not all of them necessarily related to science.

It was quantum physics and a deceptively simple theory aside. You took something apart on the molecular level and then repaired it somewhere else. You’d had a few failures - mashed apples, melted pens, stuff that was never put back together at all - but today... today all six of you held your breaths.

Dr. Amaya Sayyid placed the apple in the middle of the device, stepping back behind the protective shield as your uncle booted up the machine. Everyone held their breath as the apple disappeared.

One minute passed, then two. The apple reappeared, completely flawless. Everyone cheered, even as you smiled with relief and picked up the apple.

The apple that had a bite taken out of it, sitting on top of a small sticky note. The note was... hard to look at, like it wasn’t quite real. The language on it was garbled for a moment until it abruptly clarified into plain English: “HELLO, BEAUTIFUL.”

“Uh, Uncle Callum?” you said, your voice strained. It was Amaya who made it to you first, blinking as she looked at the apple and the note.

“Congratulations?” she murmured under her breath as she took the note from you, frowning. Wait, what? She didn’t see the same message you did...? You shook your head, handing off the apple to someone else as everyone began to theorize about what it could mean. You had the strangest feeling like you were being watched.

You had carpooled that morning with a coworker, the only person remotely near your age despite the fact he was in his mid-forties and you were in your late twenties. You held your bag close to your chest, tugging your hair free of its tie.

“That was so weird today, right?” he said, glancing over at you even as he pulled up in front of your apartment building.

“Very,” you agreed, oddly subdued. He huffed, nudging you.

“Oh, come on, ___. The apple had been interacted with when it shouldn’t have even existed in that form at all. This... this blows any theories we’ve had about that kind of stuff out of the water. I mean, isn’t it exciting? Knowing that what we thought we knew was wrong?”

“I don’t know,” you said, shaking your head. “I can’t shake the feeling that... that someone’s been watching me, watching _us_ , all day. It was _interacted with_. We don’t know if the entity is good or bad or... something else.”

He shrugged. “The thing congratulated us. That sounds pretty good to me, yeah? We’ll figure it out. Humanity’s survived everything thrown at it this far, from an unforgiving, uncaring universe to nuclear weapons to diseases. With the best and brightest on the case, even a deceptively evil entity won’t be a problem.”

You laughed a bit. “Lou... you’re too much of an optimist.” You smiled, though, heartened by his words as you left the car to enter your building. He drove away once you were through the gates. If someone with so much more life experience than you had faith, then was it really that bad?

Once you got inside, your cheer left. You still felt like you were being _stared at_ , but everywhere you looked there were no signs of people. You shuddered, pulling out your key and unlocking your door before sliding inside. You dropped your bag to the ground and then kicked off your shoes, slinking over to the couch and then collapsing on it.

You loved your work. You had even loved grad school as you pursued further education on your physics degree. You loved to work, in general, especially when it was something you were passionate about.

You idly turned on the TV, letting out a heavy sigh as the news popped up. You didn’t like to overwhelm yourself with current events, but it was nice to stay informed. However, the news made you sit up a little more.

“This evening, the most extraordinary thing happened,” said the newsperson, their eyes wide. “Just three hours earlier, a group of strange beings have come down to Ebotton from the eponymous mountain our great city gets its name from. Calling themselves monsters, they’re lead by a ten-year-old named Frisk and claim to come in peace. The things from our nightmares... and from our stories... are _real_. Evan Prulonski is on the ground now.”

“Thanks, Clara,” the newscaster said with a smile, “As you can see, the, uh, monsters are keeping mostly to themselves. Our governor and the monsters’ leaders, Queen Toriel and King Asgore, are in talks concerning them leaving the mountain. They claim that humans sealed them down their centuries ago and that the human child they left with, Frisk, freed them. At the moment, there’s just a small group here; you can see five, and another two are in with the governor and his people. It’s an extraordinary story and no doubt we’ll continue to keep you up to date as the story unfolds. Back to you, Clara.”

“Thanks, Evan. What an incredible tale. We have to wonder if they really do come in peace, or -”

You shut off the TV. You felt like a hand was on your shoulder, and you jerked to look around - but nothing was there. A shudder ran through you, and you scrubbed at your eyes for a moment.

Today had been an absolutely crazy day. You’d stayed late at work because everyone thought the test would work today, and it had... now the time was ticking later and later, and maybe the world would feel less like it had been turned upside down in the morning. You’d take a long, hot shower and go to bed. Yeah, that sounded good.

You woke up to your alarm and groaned. Even showering last night hadn’t quite shaken the feeling of being watched. Ever since the apple came back... it was like something or someone was **constantly staring at you**. Even now, you could feel it.

When you left your room, you moved to get a cup of coffee started... only to find the coffee had already been brewed. You just needed to make up a cup. You know you hadn’t done it last night; it was steaming like it had only been done a few minutes before you woke up.

You poured the coffee as your uneasy feeling got worse, making it up with the amount of milk and sugar you liked in it, and sipped at it as you grabbed a granola bar for breakfast. You rubbed your arm. Then, of course, there was what had been on the news last night.

You clicked your TV on and watched the news while sipping on the coffee. It wasn’t currently on the monsters, but a few different stations and a few minutes later and you were hearing more about them. Apparently a robot was going to do an expose on their history, and then some humans would be able to interview the King and Queen.

Okay then. You rubbed at your eyes and looked up at the ceiling, turning the TV off. Coffee empty, you finally checked the messages on your phone. A group chat of scientists - some of them better than others with technology, as was to be expected with a group of older folks - speculating on the apple and the message, including one person - your uncle - linking it to the monsters.

Which. Huh. That was definitely a theory worth pursuing and you said as much, only to get teased it was because your uncle said it. You rolled your eyes, messaged ‘I have more class than that’ and then checked your email. Spam that had missed your spam filter, a message from a game you didn’t play anymore, and other bits-and-bobs. Nothing important, but then there almost never was these days.

You browsed the internet idly as you nommed your granola bar, reading over different articles, thoughts, and theories about the monsters. It was all anyone could think about; new game and movie releases, drama with foreign countries, celebrity going-ons, all of it was ignored in favor of the new species that had just come and introduced themselves.

In **your** city. A roll of unexpected nausea ran through you and you closed out of your phone. Okay. Go to work, or call off? You tried not to call off - you didn’t want to slack at all or anything - but you felt just a little bit justified doing so in this case. They’d understand, everyone was reasonable. But working might be a good distraction from always-being-watched and the monsters. Or the monsters might be the only thing people talked about.

Then again, you guys HAD just succeeded at figuring out teleportation. That would probably be the primary topic... and the idea of trying to act excited when you just felt unnerved was very unappealing.

Okay. Avoiding work it was.

You called work, faking a little cough and acting sick. You were given some sympathy, and then you decided to just... putter around. Maybe you could play some video games, clean up the house a little bit...

An hour and a half later, you still felt like you had eyes on you. Maybe you could run an errand? It was highly unlikely anyone would see you, and maybe _that_ would help you avoid the whole situation with being watched and monsters emerging from under a mountain and...

Ugh. You get dressed and grab your bag, checking the list of things you needed. Some more bathroom cleaner and some milk were the only things on your list, since you usually kept yourself well-stocked. You passed by your favorite store on your way home from work, so whenever you ran out you just stopped by and grabbed that one specific thing. It felt a lot less tiring than going, say, once a week for a whole bunch of things, but you still sometimes had to make major trips to the store.

This wasn’t a major trip, perse, but at least it got you out of the house. Now if only you could shake the feeling of being watched. It was a prickling at the back of your neck, unshakable and relentless.

Shopping at least proved a minor distraction. Milk, bathroom cleaner... and then, of course, you went into the aisle with snacks. It was when you were looking at the various teas available - a small section in the aisle with unchilled drinks - that you accidentally backed up right into someone else.

“Oh, shoot, sorry!” you exclaimed immediately. And then your breath caught as you came face to face with death itself.

Death was a short, stocky skeleton wearing a blue hoodie and pink slippers with bright white lights in its eyes.

“no problem,” death said, waving its (his?) hand. His voice was deep and decidedly masculine, and death’s usually personified as a guy, so... “sorry for the scare, heh. just...” He looks at you grinning, although his grin seems very... fake. “...name’s sans. sans the skeleton. i’m, uh, one of the monsters from the mountain.” He offered his hand, and you stared at it stupidly until it clicks.

“Oh! Oh.” You shook his hand and gave your name. “Um, wow. I didn’t expect to run into... um. I literally just saw you guys on the news last night...” Why was all this weird shit happening _now_ , and why was some of it happening to _you_? You also decided not to tell him about mistaking him for death. That would... probably be rude.

He was giving you a strange look. Why was he giving you a strange look...? Oh.

“You had a whoopie cushion in your hand,” you snorted, belatedly, “Ah, man. Maybe if it was a better day I could appreciate it properly.”

He snickered, shrugging as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “sorry to hear your day’s not great. i may not have any ears, but i can still make a good listener.”

Right, because telling a stranger - even a magical monster from under Mt. Ebott - that you couldn’t help but feel like you were constantly being watched was a good idea.

“Ah, that’s - that’s fine. I need to be getting home anyway,” you lied. “Nice to meet you, Sans the Skeleton.”

This time, you knew why you were being watched, and it was considerably less creepy. But then you were out of sight of Sans, and... well, it was back to that vague feeling of observation. Buying the five things you had gotten was nerve-wracking, and you stumbled over your idle small talk with the cashier. This was a bad idea after all.

You melted into the couch at home after putting everything away, hiding your eyes with your hands. You were starting to get paranoid. It was _unbearable_.

“Please stop staring at me,” you groaned at nobody in particular, “I can’t _take_ this.”

There was a moment more, and then you felt a piece of paper being placed very delicately into your lap. You jumped upright, grabbing the paper and okay there was writing on this paper what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck --

You took a deep breath, forcing yourself to stop hyperventilating, and read the paper.

“APOLOGIES FOR THE DISRUPTION, BUT YOUR EXPERIMENT HAS CAUGHT MY EYE. ALLOW ME TO CONGRATULATE YOU AS I HAVE THE REST OF YOUR TEAM: GOOD WORK ON FIGURING OUT TELEPORTATION. MY NAME IS 👎︎❒︎📬︎ 🕈︎📬︎👎︎ ♑︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ AND IT IS THROUGH MY REALM WHICH THINGS TRAVEL WHEN THEY TELEPORT. IT IS CALLED THE VOID AND IT EXISTS OUTSIDE OF TIME AND SPACE. I MEAN YOU NO HARM, ONLY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOU. I DO NOT MEAN TO UPSET YOU.”

Okay. So there was a benevolent entity who, apparently, existed in a realm outside of time and space that anything that teleported had to go through. It was strangely relieving to have at least some response, even if your eyes swam upon seeing the symbols for the name that you couldn’t read. It made sense that the thing that claimed to live outside of time and space would have a name not meant for mortal eyes, or something.

At least, they claimed to be benevolent and for your own sanity you weren’t going to argue. You study the message for a moment. “Learn more about me,” you say dubiously, “Like, me specifically, or my kind, or my team, or...?”

For a moment, the sensation of being watched faded before it came back in full force. There was no other response. You had some answers now, however, and it was far less unnerving to know that you could communicate with whatever was watching you, and that it didn’t seem to be hostile.

The next day, you went into work. You even did a pretty decent job of focusing. The experiment was repeated a few more times with different objects. Mostly, your team was waiting for a live test subject, a mouse or something, to see if that worked too. According to your uncle, someone would be bringing in a couple of mice tomorrow. You were excited to see it.

The day flew by, and you got home tired but happy. You made yourself a freezer meal, heating it in the microwave, and ate as you scrolled through social media on your phone without really processing anything. Your team’s success wasn’t being advertised yet, so the only thing anyone could talk about was the monsters. It filled up your feed.

Apparently, there was a human kid. They used to be in foster care and had ran away from a home, and were now insisting that they’d live with the monster queen. You shook your head at it and cleaned up.

It was then you noticed that you had some tea brewing on the counter. You didn’t remember - oh! There was a note.

“YOU REALLY SHOULD EAT BETTER, BUT AS A 💧︎♍︎♓︎♏︎■︎⧫︎♓︎⬧︎⧫︎ MYSELF I UNDERSTAND.” It looked like the strange being watching you had made you a cup of tea. You took a sip, wondering what word the symbols were supposed to translate too. Busy person? Scientist? You let it go. It wasn’t important, anyway.

The next day was trials with mice, and that was successful as well. It also earned you all a scolding note from the being.

“LIVE ANIMALS WHEN YOU’RE NOT SURE IT’S SAFE? HONESTLY, YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST SENT SOMETHING THROUGH TO TEST FOR OXYGEN. LUCKY FOR YOU THE VOID IS PERFECTLY SAFE.”

You nearly laughed at it, and you ended up smiling.

The week fell into a routine - you went into work and did more trials of the teleportation machine with animals and objects both, came home (these days, with a cup of tea waiting for you) and ate something (you made sure you got your vegetables), and then slept before waking up to do it all over again. You started leaving notes for the entity as well, little comments on things that happened in your life. It was nice to have someone who was in on all the jokes with you, even if your communication wasn’t the most efficient or best way of going about things.

But at the end of the week, work had a surprise for you. You hadn’t been following the monsters too closely, but...

The same skeleton you had thought was death was there, blue hoodie, pink slippers, and all. Your uncle was grinning ear from ear.

“The monsters are incredible!” he declared when everyone had arrived and clustered around at the marvel of a living skeleton. “Sans has heard of our experiment, and as a physicist himself _and_ with powers of teleportation, he’s actually volunteered to help out with our experiment. We may be able to get to human trials much more quickly that way!”

“i’d volunteer to test the machine proper, but i wouldn’t count as a human trial,” Sans drawled, shrugging with a strange smile that made you feel oddly uneasy. “made mostly of magic, not matter, so it wouldn’t work the same way.”

You had a bad feeling about this, so you took the first opportunity for a break you could to write a note out to the entity watching you, expressing your concerns.

“I THINK SANS IS TRYING TO GET ME BACK.”

You stared at the response for a little bit, frowning as you pressed your hands together and let out a heavy sigh. That brought up a lot of questions, but maybe those questions were better asked of Sans, particularly since you could communicate with him more effectively.

Besides, your break was over anyway. Communicating with the void entity took up a fair bit of time, since he _had_ to write and you... usually did. It felt weird to talk to nothing, let the air absorb your words instead of ears. Even though someone _was_ hearing you, it just... felt nice to write back. That’s what the entity had to do, after all.

You managed to finagle your way over to Sans, waiting until the two of you are almost-but-not-quite alone.

“So... what inspired you to volunteer to help some humans?”

His smile went slightly tight, his entire body tensing up. “we’ve just come out from under a mountain and we’re hoping to not start a war. the more goodwill we get, the better.”

You tilted your head at him, humming a bit before looking away. He was sweating and you had the strange feeling that he was lying... particularly after the entity's commentary.

“Yeah, but there’s lots of ways to get goodwill. Why _this_ way, in particular?” you pushed. “Dr. Patrini said you’re a physicist?”

“astrophysicist, really,” Sans said, shrugging. He was still sweating, still clearly uncomfortable. “but, uh... like i said, i have teleportation powers. makes sense to help with this, you know?”

“Sure.” You frowned. “There’d be easier ways, though. Like, I don’t know, working at a food kitchen?”

“nah, too much work. i’m a bit of a lazybones.” He winked at you, and you sighed heavily.

“Look...” You bit your lip, considering how to say it. “Do you know anything about the... the entity in the void? We got a weird message with our first test, and he, uh, criticized our use of a mouse in one of our tests too.”

Sans jumped, looking at you with his eyelights extinguishing. It was truly unnerving. But his eyelights flickered back on, his sweating getting worse. It was a strange blue color around the edges, and it looked kind of gross in general. You also had the strange and irrational urge to taste it, because sometimes your brain was just weird.

“yeah,” he said, “that... that entity is why i’m here. the void can be... dangerous. and tricky. so, since i know about it since i can teleport...”

“You want to help,” you finished for him, “Speaking of which - um. I’m pretty sure the entity has been... watching me. You - you remember when we met at the shop about a week ago? I was trying to distract from the feeling of being stared at.”

Sans was practically soaking at this point, his smile looking entirely false. “i... see. okay, okay, cool. um. have you... communicated with the entity at all?”

You turned fully towards him, crossing your arms, and then handed him the paper the entity had wrote to you.

Sans let out a heavy sigh. “i take it he’s, uh, talked with you more than the others?”

“I was going mental with all the staring,” you said, “He finally wrote down explaining a few things and I get the feeling that... I maybe shouldn’t share all of it with the others.”

“good instincts,” Sans said, “look, he... he used to be a monster, like me.”

Your eyes went wide. “Wait, what?”

“yeah. he, uh. he did something to... _unattach_ himself from time and space, and he fragmented. some fragments - some fragments are good, and other fragments are nasty pieces of work. i’m trying to figure out which fragment this one is. i’m leaning towards good, but he’s always been a manipulative bastard regardless of whether he has good intentions or not.”

You shuddered. “Yeah, um, maybe you shouldn’t talk about someone who’s listening,” you said, feeling the - the presence that you knew marked the entity shift with emotion. You’d have to sit down and write back and forth with him about it, but he _obviously_ heard that.

“i know he’s listening,” Sans said, “i want to make sure he hears. any idea why he’s watching _you_ in particular?”

“Not... really.” You paused, chewing on your bottom lip for a moment. “The first test there was a paper. To everyone else, it said ‘Congratulations’. But I saw it as, uh... ‘hello, beautiful’. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but...”

Sans rolled his eyes. “great. apparently he’s got a crush.”

Your cheeks flamed, and if the entity was still a monster or whatever, you were sure he’d be blushing too.

“although that’s... promising, at least,” Sans added, “the ☝︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎⬧︎ who show attachment to people usually tend to be half-decent at least.”

You made a face as the word _buzzed_ in your ears, entirely unintelligible. Sans gave you a grin that was half-teasing and half-sympathetic. “How do you even pronounce that?” you complained.

Sans shrugged. “you’ll figure it out.”


	2. New Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The entity is successfully retrieved from the void, thanks to you being reckless and brave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is zero proofreading and this is so, so late and i am so, so sorry.

Sans was contradictory, you figured out by the end of that first day. He had eventually admitted to you that it would be nice to return the entity to the timeline, yet also claimed that it would be a terrible idea and somehow the entity _deserved_ to stay there. He also lounged a lot instead of being productive, only to have short bursts where he’d get a massive amount of things done.

You found it infinitely frustrating. Unlike Sans, you had no qualms about the entity. Sure, the staring had been weird, but the idea that he could somehow be restored, somehow come _back_ to the world instead of being stuck separate from it. Which meant you had to somehow convince Sans that he should, absolutely, bring the entity back to this world.

That night, you got out your old chess set to play. Both of you were rusty on it, and you yourself were a little impatient, but you were both also still familiar with the rules of chess. You drank some hot chocolate as the two of you played and wrote notes back and forth.

You had determined thus far that Sans was somehow related to the entity, and that they had some kind of familial relationship. This ‘fragment’ of the entity had no idea there were any other versions of him, and his name was essentially ‘censored’ when he became unanchored from time and space.

You moved a pawn in a spot you were pretty sure was safe, letting the entity have the time he needed to think over his next move as you looked at the current message on the chain of notes the two of you were making in the notebook. Apparently, if you looked at what he was moving directly, he couldn’t interact with the world.

“WELL, IF YOU’RE DONE PLYING ME WITH QUESTIONS, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD TELL ME SOME OF YOURSELF. WHY DID YOU START WORKING WITH YOUR COMPATRIOTS? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO GET INTO SCIENCE?”

You smiled. “Callum Patrini is my uncle,” you wrote back, “When I was little he would tell me stories about what he was learning and I sort of fell in love with it and followed in his footsteps. It hasn’t been an easy path, but I’ve loved doing it, and being able to work for my Uncle Callum - one of the best people I know - has been a joy. I love everyone else working there with me too, although they still treat me like a kid.”

You made a face, and looked over at the chess board. Shit. He’d been able to take the pawn, and you could practically _feel_ the smugness. You were in check.

You thought over your move, taking your time and testing out a few options. Finally, you made your move, biting your lip and very reluctantly taking your hand off of it before you looked back at the paper.

“THEY ALL SEEM LIKE CAPABLE PEOPLE. ALSO: CHECKMATE.”

You looked back at the board and cussed. “Shit! I thought you said you were rusty,” you complained. Your king was stuck; the entity had managed to corner you.

However, you smiled as you finished off your hot chocolate, closing the notebook before starting to put the chess board away. When you reached for the mug you had been using, you couldn’t find it - not until you glanced at the drying rack on the kitchen, to see it already cleaned.

“Thanks,” you said, letting out a soft sigh. You wished you knew what the entity looked like, his name... You had to convince Sans somehow to bring him back. It had only been a couple of weeks, but his company had started to be soothing instead of unnerving. Following news about the monsters had started to be exciting, too, and you were always rooting for them. Humanity could be cruel, but so far it seemed the monsters at least were allowed to live in peace even if they weren’t actually allowed to buy any houses in Ebott City or anything yet. It _had_ been just a week, after all.

You shook your head, clearing the thoughts away, and you took a shower before heading to bed.

The next day, you went into work with a plan. You didn’t waste time, approaching Sans as soon as he arrived with your arms crossed.

“We need to get him back,” you said firmly.

Sans blinked, slouching as he slipped his hands into his pockets. He lidded his eyes, grinning up at you. “get who back?” he asked.

You scowled. “The entity in the void, that’s who.”

Sans shrugged. “ehhhh. i don’t see it. there’s no rush.”

“Except for the fact that he’s been in the void for _years_ ,” you argued back.

“sure,” Sans agreed, “but there’s no way to trust him. if i bring back a fragment with little to no conscious, willing to do anything in the name of science and able to justify horrible acts like that, that’s trouble.”

You smacked the wall. “He isn’t like that!” you insisted. Sans gaze sharpened as he looked at you.

“he’s skilled at manipulation,” the skeleton said simply.

You groaned. “Okay, so what would _prove_ to you this fragment isn’t evil?”

The skeleton just shrugged. “we gotta get to work,” he said, walking past you. You wanted to scream.

You shook your head and did your best to focus on work. Thanks to Sans’s help, it was looking like next week you’d be able to take a human volunteer. Which gave you an idea. A dangerous, risky idea that you were 100% nobody would approve of, but...

If Sans wasn’t going to help you, then you may not have a choice. And volunteering to be the human trial, in and of itself, wouldn’t be out of character for you, particularly if that would allow the trial to come even more quickly.

Decided, you went ahead and talked to your uncle during lunch, sitting next to him with your brought-from-home food.

“I want to volunteer for human trials,” you declared to him, “Especially if it means we can do them sooner.”

Callum grinned at you. “I think we can work with that,” he said happily, “Just as soon as we get approval, we can set you up to go through instead of waiting for volunteers. I mean - we’ll need to repeat it, of course, but if you want to claim the first go...”

“Absolutely,” you agreed, nodding, “Has anyone else volunteered to go through?”

“Actually, yes. With the promise of Sans able to get anyone out if it somehow goes wrong, along with the astronomically low chances of that happening in the first place thanks to all of our other trials succeeding, it seems everyone is interested in trying it out.” Callum chuckled. “But you’re my niece, and you usually don’t take advantage of that fact. So... I figure I can give you the benefit of that fact just this once. Unless you don’t want to go first?” He smiled.

“Nah, I definitely want to try it out first,” you said, laughing. “Thanks, Uncle Callum.” You kissed his cheek and he did your forehead. You started to dig into your lunch, anxious and eager.

You continued to pester Sans to try and get him to help you free the entity from the void, but he was still distrustful and unwilling. It was frustrating.

And sure, the entity said it was fine, and that Sans would eventually be won over, but... _you_ were impatient. It wasn’t fair that he was still stuck in the void because of Sans’s paranoia. Still, another week passed, and your uncle proudly announced the fact that teleporting humans had been officially cleared.

So, you were set up into the device to be teleported about a foot away. Anxiety clawed at you, but you just smiled along with it. Sans seemed nervous.

“kid, maybe you shouldn’t,” he said quietly to you.

“It’ll work,” you said dismissively, “I trust my uncle, and I’m putting my trust into _you_ , too.”

“not gonna do something stupid?”

“Nope!” That was a lie, of course - you were absolutely going to try something stupid. But you had a feeling even the entity would try to stop you if he knew what you were planning.

The machine was powered up, and you felt yourself stretch and twist and split into a million pieces, atom-by-atom rearranged.

It was black and dark, and you almost suffocated on it. But you could feel the entity there, the same gaze you’d felt for the past three weeks, and you grabbed onto him and tried to pull him with you.

“💧︎⧫︎□︎◻︎✏︎ ⬥︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♎︎□︎♓︎■︎♑︎✍︎✏︎” he cried out. The words were static and panic, causing your head to throb, but you refused to stop pulling.

Atoms settled, piece-by-piece forming you whole and complete, painless on both ends, and you fell to the floor. With something on top of you. No - someone.

His face was skeletal but not quite skeleton, you thought; smooth white covering with black holes, small little lights shining with his mouth forming a startled ‘o’. Your head continued to throb, but - hands and fingers and feet and toes were all together, even if you were underneath him.

You grinned. Sans grimaced over into the corner.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT WORKED,” the entity said, rather understandable now. He shuffled off of you, kneeling. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU TRIED SOMETHING LIKE THAT!”

You sat up slowly.

“Um.” Your uncle cleared his throat, crossing his arms and staring down at you. “Feel like explaining yourself, ___?”

You flushed.

“she did something stupid,” Sans grumbled, “risked herself.” He stared at you, and you got the implication that he felt like you didn’t _just_ risk yourself, but considerably more than that. You scowled at him.

“This is - this is the entity in the void,” you said, “The one that sent us a couple of messages. He, um. He’s been watching me, hanging out with me I guess, since the first experiment. Sans is... related to him, somehow, and he’s, he’s a monster, he wasn’t always stuck in the void.”

Callum pinched his nose. “And you never told anyone about this because...?”

The entity reached his hand down. There was a gaping hole in it, his fingers - phalanges - made up of small bones. You took his hand, letting him help you to your feet.

“It felt like a bad idea,” you said, shrugging awkwardly, “I don’t know, just... Honestly, this whole situation consists of me being irrational and stupid...”

“Which isn’t at all like you,” your uncle scolded, “Your parents would have killed me if I let you get hurt.”

“it’s kind of shocking that you’re not, actually,” Sans chimed in. “if i knew you were going to do this, kid, i would have just helped you in the first place. i assumed you’d be smarter than that, though.”

“Yeah, yeah, clearly I have had many lapses in judgment. It all worked out though, didn’t it?”

“AND LUCKY IT DID,” the entity said, joining in with the thorough scolding you were receiving. He cleared his throat. “WELL, THAT BEING THE CASE, I SUPPOSE I SHOULD INTRODUCE MYSELF PROPERLY. MY NAME IS DOCTOR W.D. GASTER, AND I AM A SCIENTIST. I SUPPOSE I HAVE A BIT OF A STORY TO SHARE. SANS, IF YOU WOULD BE SO KIND AS TO HELP ME...?”

“a lot of the information in gaster’s story is classified,” Sans said, “at least, the _how_ he ended up unanchored from time and space and scattered across the void. but he did. and everyone forgot about him, everyone except me and my brother.”

“MY BROTHER AND ME,” Gaster corrected, “YES. IN THE VOID, TIME IS STRANGE. IT HAS BEEN FIVE MINUTES AND INFINITY SINCE I FELL... SINCE I WAS UNANCHORED. THE BARRIER OVER THE MOUNTAIN SERVED ITS PURPOSE: FOR A LONG TIME, I COULD NOT SEE ANYTHING OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. AND THEN, SUDDENLY, I COULD, AND OF ALL THINGS AN _APPLE_ ENDS UP INSIDE THE VOID. I SEE HOW AND WHY THIS HAPPENED, AND CONGRATULATE THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED ON IT.”

“meanwhile, i’m sensing my old man outside of the mountain, a lot closer than he usually is. means one of his fragments is getting up to things. so i start trying to figure out his plans, and what do i find? a machine that mimics my shortcuts, that can _teleport_ things. a way out for him. course, gaster’s too fragmented to actually escape, and a lot of his fragments are... horrible. so i plan to just keep an eye on him and the machine, make sure he stays where he _belongs_.” With that, Sans glared at Gaster, his expression dark. He was still grinning, but you had gotten the impression the grin was kind of permanent.

“YOU ACT AS IF I DID NOT CREATE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER FROM MY OWN BLOOD AND SOUL,” Gaster said, “AS IF I HAVE MISTREATED YOU AND DONE HORRIBLE THINGS TO YOU. I ADMIT I MADE MISTAKES, BUT YOU WERE NEVER UNFED AND I MADE SURE TO SHOW THE LOVE I HAVE FOR THE BOTH OF YOU, _TO_ THE BOTH OF YOU.”

“you’re also manipulative and twisted,” Sans replied, “you tried to _use_ us, too, don’t think i’ve forgotten -”

“I ASKED YOU BOTH TO ASSIST ME WITH THE CORE BECAUSE YOU BOTH DISPLAYED EXEMPLARY ABILITIES,” Gaster said, exasperated, “BUT THIS IS NOT THE TIME OR THE PLACE FOR THIS ARGUMENT.”

“Yeah... a family argument is a little awkward when you’re not apart of the family. You should see the Patrinis, these two are, uh...” Amaya trailed off, laughing awkwardly. “So if you two could save it for another time and place, thanks.”

“Well,” you announced abruptly, “Either way, I don’t regret what I’ve done. Nice to officially meet you, Doctor Gaster.” You offered your hand to him, this time to shake his. He smiled hesitantly, but took your hand and shook it with confidence.

“THE PLEASURE IS ALL MINE, MY DEAR. AND PLEASE, CALL ME WING. IT HAS BEEN NICE TO HAVE SOMEONE TO INTERACT WITH FOR THIS TIME,” he said, “REGARDLESS OF...”

His face fell, although he tried to keep the smile.

You cleared your throat. “Uncle Callum - can I go home early?”

Callum responded with a heavy sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose just below his glasses. “Yes, fine, go home with Dr. Gaster. Dr. Gaster, Sans, would both of you be kind enough to come in tomorrow? Clearly we have a lot we need to talk.”

Sans looked uncomfortable but shrugged and said, “yeah, sure. and i’ll stay for the rest of the day if you want.”

“OF COURSE,” Wing agreed with a lot more eagerness, “AND SANS... PLEASE. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG, I’VE MISSED ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO TALK TO YOU...”

Sans’s grin turned a little more honest. “okay, yeah, i’ll come with you, old man.”

The three of you left. You were - giddy, anxious, a bunch of tumbling emotions twisting in your chest. You didn’t even realize that you were still holding Wing’s hand, although he didn’t seem to have any problems with it as you left.

“Should we, like - I don’t know, go to a restaurant or something, eat and catch up? Or we could go to my apartment I guess, I don’t know where monsters are staying in general...”

“A RESTAURANT IS GOOD, MY DEAR,” Wing said. You took his hand and the three of you headed to a nearby cafe.

“I’M SURE YOU HAVE MANY QUESTIONS,” Wing began, “IN FACT, I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS MYSELF. SANS... YOU MENTIONED ‘FRAGMENTS’?”

Sans ground his teeth. “you’re not the only gaster around,” he admitted, “you shattered, dad. and each piece of you has a different personality. every single one is desperate to get out.”

“I SEE.” Wing let out a heavy sigh. “WELL, WHILE I APPRECIATE BEING FREED FROM THE VOID... I WAS NOT QUITE DESPERATE TO GET OUT. WHICH IS WHY I ENCOURAGED ___ TO BE PATIENT.”

“It was unfair,” you said, “The void sounds like a terrible place to be stuck in.”

“IT IS NOT ALL BAD. I WAS LEARNING SO MUCH... STILL.” Wing smiled a bit. “I AM GLAD TO BE OUT. TO MOVE AGAIN, TO EXPERIENCE TIME IN A LINEAR FASHION... THESE ARE THINGS PEOPLE TAKE FOR GRANTED.”

“no kiddin’,” Sans agreed, “it’s... good to see you, pops. really. the last fragment i dealt with was really aggressive, so seeing one that... looks and acts a lot like the gaster i remember...”

“IT IS GOOD TO _TOUCH_ YOU,” Wing said with some awe, reaching out and resting his hand over Sans’s. You started to feel like an intruder, so...

“I’ll let you two catch up,” you said, starting to stand.

“NO, NO.” Wing waved a hand. “I DO NOT THINK WE WOULD BE WELCOME HERE IF NOT FOR YOUR PRESENCE... AND I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU, TOO. YOUR COMPANY WAS LOVELY TO HAVE, AND IT IS EVEN MORE LOVELY TO EXPERIENCE IN PERSON. YOUR VISAGE IS _ALSO_ QUITE PLEASING TO THE EYE. WHEN I TIRE LOOKING AT MY SON, I CERTAINLY COULDN’T IMAGINE A BETTER VIEW.”

Blushing, you sat back down. “So, um - Sans is your son?”

“that’s right,” the other skeleton agreed, leaning a bit on the table with his eyes lidded. “gaster here made me and my brother out of his own SOUL and genetic material. it was sort of a proof of concept that it could be done, early on in - uh. things.”

“Right, okay.” You let out a heavy breath. “So I don’t actually understand much about monsters, and I really would like to learn more.”

"most info's classified, kid," Sans said.

"SURELY IT WILL DO NO HARM TO TELL HER?" Wing prompted, "IT WON'T BE CLASSIFIED FOR MUCH LONGER, ANYWAY."

Sans let out a heavy sigh. "i know you'll just tell her when i'm gone, so... hell. promise to keep a secret?" Sans looked at you seriously.

"I won't say a word," you promised, "Not even to my coworkers or anything. So - tell me about monsters. _Why_ did Wing make you and... your brother? Also: why do you call him Gaster sometimes, anyway?

Asking scientists to explain things was a wonderful idea, in that you got a very thorough explanation, but it was also terrible because, well, you got an entire lecture on the topic. Still, you felt like you understood a lot more by the time it was done. And Sans somehow managed to avoid the topic entirely of why he occasionally called Wing 'Gaster' instead of 'dad' or even by his first name, like you were calling him.

Sans headed home before Wing did, leaving the two of you to walk back to your apartment. You reached out, and ended up holding his hand. It was a strange feeling. His skin - bones - whatever was slightly cold, and you could feel the hole in his palm.

“I... I MUST ADMIT, I AM NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT I AM DOING,” Wing admitted, “IT IS SORT OF EMBARRASSING, AND I FEEL A LOT LIKE A SCHOOLBOY WITH A CRUSH.”

He paused, his cheeks almost glowing. It took you a moment to realize he was _blushing_. “I AM... QUITE FOND OF YOU, MY DEAR. YOU ARE VERY INTELLIGENT AND KIND, AND BRAVE - IF A BIT RECKLESS. CONSIDERING THAT, WERE IT NOT FOR YOU, I WOULD STILL BE IN THE VOID, WELL... THAT DOES NOT HELP WITH HOW I FEEL.”

You swung your hands, considering the situation carefully.

“I mean... I like you too, Wing,” you said, heat coloring your cheeks red, “I didn’t expect you to be a monster or... anything... but, like. It’s been nice to have your company these past few weeks, even if it hasn’t been traditional.”

You took a deep breath and then let it out. Wing had described you as reckless and brave, so... you decided to be reckless and brave. You leaned towards him and quickly pressed your lips to his.

His lips were as cold as his hand, hard like bone but covered in a texture that was quite skin-like. It was weird, and you pulled away after just a second, looking away from him. It had been nice, too, but you may have overstepped.

Before you could apologize, however, Wing cupped your cheek in his hand and returned the kiss. It was still strange, something you marvelled at, but you enjoyed it too.

“Um,” you said when the two of you finally separated, your cheeks still red and burning. Wing had his own strange blush, too, which made you feel a little better.

“I think I understand the whole schoolkid-with-a-crush impression,” you said, laughing, “But that was - that was nice.”

“YES,” Wing agreed, “IT WAS.”

“Well... I guess it’s time for me to return some favors. Let me start by making you a cup of tea,” you decided, ushering him into your apartment building and then the apartment itself. He was smiling as he headed in.

You still had questions, and things to figure out, and maybe you should apologize to Sans for dating his dad, but... well. You were hopeful.

And the way Wings looked at you - you were pretty sure the two of you were on the same page.

**Author's Note:**

> thankfully, there are only two parts.
> 
> you may be wondering why Sans is being so straightforward and honest. it's cuz he wants to see if this gaster-fragment is legit, because it would be nice to have Gaster back. also, you've shown that you're 100% willing to push for answers and uuuugghh trying to keep it secret is too much work. ALSO also, Frisk has just come through the Underground. secrets bad. Sans is actually trying rn.


End file.
